9th September

Is it getting to the stage where we've had too much of a good thing and probably need a stir-up in the weather? Easterlies have been well-established for a week now and have certainly produced a selection of oddities as well as a considerable upsurge in migrant numbers (more birds have been ringed at the Obs so far this month than in the whole of August) but today had that disheartening quiet feel about it that suggested a change might be welcome. Bearing in mind that it's also the full moon period - it's so clear and bright overnight that's it's hard to imagine why anything would have bothered to drop in - it was a surprise that were actually a couple of spots where grounded migrants were relatively numerous, with more than 50 Blackcaps at both Coombefield Quarry and Tilleycombe; interest on the ground was otherwise scant: the Wryneck at Barleycrates Lane, the Icterine Warbler at the Obs and the Nightingale at the Obs Quarry were all still in situ, singles of Short-eared Owl at the Bill and Firecrest at Avalanche Road provided further interest, but it was otherwise none too exciting on the ground. After some early promise overhead, when hirundines, pipits and wagtails looked to be getting going in quantity at the Bill, everything fizzled out rather tamely with no more than single Merlins over the Bill and Reap Lane, and a late Swift over the Bill to show by way of quality.Conditions were again not at all favourable for overnight moth-trapping, with a single Cosmopolitan at the Obs constituting the immigrant highlight.